Is a SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship Considered Taxable Income or Not?

[Borodin]

I had a SSHRC Doctoral scholarship last year. I got my T4A from the school and the amount is listed in Box 105. It shows up as income when I do my taxes on quicktax. What gives?

[electrochoc]

T4A income is not taxable if used to fund a degree (ba, ma, or phd), although it is still income hence why you get a T4A for it. If it is for post-doc, then it's taxable. So basically fellowships are taxable and scholarships are not. It sort of depends on the province though, Quebec treats scholarships a bit different.

"In most cases, scholarships, fellowships, or bursaries are not taxable and need not be reported as income on your tax return, if you received them while enrolled as a student in a program that entitles you to claim the education amount on your tax information, as defined by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). More information on this topic may be found at CRAs website, <http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-e.html>. In some rare circumstances (outlined on CRA's website), this award or portions of it may be taxed."

Also, I believe this has been dealt with extensively in other threads. You should take a look at that. This one particular thread my be useful (they also mention how you input t4a income but it gets subtracted from taxable income later):

Edited March 5, 2012 by zoegrrl

[ktel]

Zoegrrl hit the nail on the head. It's income but it's not taxable provided you're a full time student. If you're part time I think the rules are a bit different.

I find the word "fellowship" is tossed around a lot, and sometimes it's taxable, sometimes it's not depending on how it's defined. I know my scholarships are not taxable and my fellowship that I'm paid to do MY OWN research is also not taxable. A separate RAship or TAing is taxable.

I do think you still need to report it though.

[electrochoc]

Zoegrrl hit the nail on the head. It's income but it's not taxable provided you're a full time student. If you're part time I think the rules are a bit different.

I find the word "fellowship" is tossed around a lot, and sometimes it's taxable, sometimes it's not depending on how it's defined. I know my scholarships are not taxable and my fellowship that I'm paid to do MY OWN research is also not taxable. A separate RAship or TAing is taxable.

I do think you still need to report it though.

Good point. I think when I used the word fellowship I was referring to the SSHRC post-doctoral fellowships, which their website states are taxable. Thanks for reminding me that I should have clarified that.

The point is that whether it is taxable or not, it is income and must be reported. The difference is that non-taxable income ends up deducted somewhere later in the forms and then it won't be taxable (counts for gross income but not net taxable income).

[speakeasy]

I am currently trying to figure out this puzzle in relation to the CIHR DRA/DFSA awards (mine is a DFSA since I'm studying in the US). The website appears to give some contradictory info:

"Training awards, whether held inside or outside Canada, are taxed as income by the Canadian government.

Training award recipients receiving payments through Canadian institutions must be issued T4 or T4A slips by the institution rather than by CIHR. CIHR issues T4A slips in February to all training award recipients paid outside of Canada during the previous calendar year, regardless of whether the payments were made directly to the training award recipients or to a non-Canadian institution.

Since no deductions are made at source by CIHR, training award recipients are responsible for determining the amount of tax they must pay, and for forwarding this amount to the Canada Revenue Agency. For information, call toll-free 1-800-959-5525 for services in English or 1-800-959-7775 for services in French.

The Federal government has recently announced that for 2006 and subsequent taxation years, the amounts received in the year by an individual on account of scholarships, fellowships, and bursaries may be excluded from income.

In 2007 CIHR reviewed the primary purpose of its training awards and changed the primary purpose to education and training rather than research. This determination makes the income of CIHR Training Awards taxable under Paragraph Section 56(1)(n) of the Canadian Income Tax Act. In some cases training award recipients may be eligible for a tax exemption on this income if they are registered in a full-time qualifying education program at a qualified institution. Contact the Canada Revenue Agency directly for further information."

Now, I called the CRA and they said that I should call CIHR (of course). So I am trying to get in touch with someone there who can tell me how the awards are classified - the CRA agent basically said that, if they are classified as a scholarship, fellowship or bursary, they are tax-exempt, but not if they are a grant. So I'm hoping that I can get the info from the horse's mouth, but it would be great to know if anyone else has already figured this out! It seems like it should be obvious, but in fact the impression I've been given is that the rules may not be the same for all granting agencies (e.g. NSERC and SSHRC may be different from CIHR...??)

The other question tax-wise that I'm a little unclear about is whether you can claim tuition paid by the university as a tax credit - i.e. I think I am getting a scholarship from the university to cover my tuition, since CIHR doesn't cover that (and 35,000 doesn't stretch nearly as far if it has to cover 25,000 tuition and 3,500 in health insurance and mandatory fees...) Anyone know the answer to this one?